Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC)'s empowered standing committee on Tuesday decided to start door-to-door waste collection in 12 new wards from April 1.
At present, the civic body carries out the project in four wards with its own resources. Although the service to start from Friday will be performed from the civic body's resources, the standing committee has decided to eventually start a bidding process to appoint private firms for door-to-door waste collection in all 72 wards of the PMC.
"The PMC would start door-to-door waste collection in 12 new wards using its own resources from April 1," said Abha Lata, ward No. 4 councillor and a member of the standing committee. "The project will, however, be finally looked after by private agencies for the entire city. The tender documents for selecting private agencies were tabled in Tuesday's meeting and the mayor approved it. The corresponding bidding process will start in a few days."
Rs 23.09 crore was sanctioned under the Centre-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for Patna's solid waste management, including door-to-door waste collection, in January 2008. However, except for purchase of small sanitation equipment, majority of the funds are lying unused.
Members of the empowered standing committee on Tuesday also decided to purchase four fogging machines, each costing Rs 9.5 crore, within a week.
Held under the chairmanship of mayor Afzal Imam, the committee decided to hire earthmovers to desilt big drains in the city. Besides, Rs 1.57 lakh was approved for minor repair works in water supply pipelines.
The ongoing drive against use of polythene bags with width of less than 40 microns would continue, the committee ruled.
The drive started on Monday. Municipal commissioner Jai Singh has issued directives to executive officers of all the four PMC circles - New Capital, Bankipore, Kankerbagh and Patna City -to lodge FIRs against any person, shop or other establishment found using polythene bags weighing less than 40 microns.
PMC first imposed the ban on such plastic bags in October 2013 in adherence to the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 notified by the Union ministry of environment and forests on February 7, 2011.
